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Thursday, June 8, 2017

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it found diesel fuel in the drilling mud Rover Pipeline builders spilled in a wetland near Canton in April.

With the discovery, the state EPA raised the proposed penalty against Rover to $914,000 and ordered the pipeline company to monitor groundwater around the spill area and near a quarry where workers have been disposing drilling mud in pits.

The quarry is near a well owned by Aqua Ohio, a company that supplies drinking water to some 40,000 customers in Stark County.

“The water has been tested by Aqua Ohio, and it was clean as of today,” Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler said Thursday. “We’ve also taken samples of private water wells, and we will demand that Rover continues to do that to make sure, in the abundance of caution, that their water is safe.”

Test results are pending on samples taken from 11 private water wells.